March 13, 2010

DODGED A BULLET ON THIS ONE

Background – I was never really that big a partier even back in the day. The reason for this was not big moral issues. The primary reason was that I didn’t have much money. Especially during the 80’s. Since I was in college and started my work career at the time of “Bright Lights Big City” (not to be confused with the porno movie “Bright Lights Big Titties“) and all that folklore, a lot of people assume I was heavy in to cocaine. My crowd didn’t participate because that was expensive.

I am not the only one who has expressed this view. I remember (but can’t find the source) when the actress Patricia Heaton who was on the TV show “Everybody Loves Raymond” was asked in a magazine interview about living and working in New York in the early 80’s. She replied that she didn’t get in to the heavy cocaine scene because she was too busy working to pay the rent and couldn’t afford it. Same here.

I did walk near the edge of getting involved in an even worse problem. One night in the mid 80’s I remember being at a friend’s apartment and all of us being very “dazed and confused” (weed). When someone brought up crack houses which we were just hearing the first stories about.

We all agreed this sounded very cool. New version of cocaine (affordable) and you went and smoked it at a house (social). This whole idea intrigued us.

Luckily it didn’t intrigue us enough to try it. Especially since we didn’t know where any of “these Crack Houses” existed.

February 20, 2010

Kitty Foreman on That 70’s show had them. I’m Not kidding, watch a few episodes you’ll see them. So it is possible you have seen these on TV.

It seems like everyone I show these pots to who grew up in the 70’s still owns or remembers them.

Growing up in Tampa Florida it meant your mother shopped at Winn-Dixie. Which at that time bore the tagline – “The Beef People”. In addition to beef, people were apparently buying lots of cookware from there. I think they offered a different piece each week at a VERY LOW price with like an $8 minimum purchase.

My family did buy their beef at Winn-Dixie. They didn’t buy their beef at Publix because it was too expensive and had something done to it which caused it to be labeled “proten” and included a little pat of butter. Pantry Pride was just gross and was mainly where they bought beer and store brand soft drinks (click here for more details about my parents drinking habits). In other words, grocery shopping was “sport” during the recession wracked 70’s. You drove from store to store in your 6 – 8 miles per gallon car to get certain items at the “best price” at 3 – 4 different stores. I remember thinking one of my friends was RICH because their mother ONLY shopped at Publix.

These are the remaining three I have at my house. I know at one time there were more. Sources included my mother, my mother inlaw and a friend’s mother. Today they are kept as backups in case the stainless steel or Calphalon is dirty. All the lids are missing and the handles fell off the large pot probably 20 years ago. I think my mother finally got rid of the last of hers.

So the next time you think you are so poor during this recession – look in your cabinets. Does your cookware include any Calphalon, LeCruset or comparable brands? If it does, then shut up. Our parents bought their cookware at the grocery store.

February 13, 2010

Temple Grandin & Claire Danes

It started snowing in Atlanta Friday afternoon so both my wife and I came home early. With nothing to do and not wanting to watch Wall to Wall coverage of “THE BLIZZARD” we decided to watch a movie on HBO that we had missed when it premiered last week, Temple Grandin with Claire Danes.

The primary thing to know about Temple Grandin is that she is a highly educated and respected animal scientist and professor but is also autistic. Most importantly for this post is that as part of her autism she says that she – “Thinks in pictures”, like internet pages. She visualizes anything she has seen, in her mind and can pull it back up and piece it together with other like material – Basically she is a human google.

All of this is covered in the HBO movie and is quite fascinating. But while watching the movie it dawned on me – SHE’S A REAL LIFE “CHUCK”!!!

In case you are not familiar with the NBC show Chuck – it revolves around a central character named Chuck who has had massive CIA files downloaded in to his brain. And when he recognizes something he “flashes” and all the information stored in his brain for that item is downloaded in to his conscious mind – LIKE A HUMAN GOOGLE!!!

This has to be obvious to everyone who sees both because I am SOOO bad at making these kinds of connections like everyone says that the movie “Clueless” is based on Jane Austen’s “Emma” – Once told I see the connection but I’m not one to spot it.

If you are not convinced watch the show on Monday nights on NBC and watch the movie on HBO. Then make up your own mind.

December 27, 2009

Well O.K. it wasn’t Huggy Bear but it was a Black Dude that dressed like him and it did happen in 1977 in Los Angeles so the title of this post creates the mental imagery I wanted.

Background – When I was 15 my family took a trip to California. This was a VERY BIG DEAL. Much like when The Brady Bunch went to Hawaii. Except I was an only child, didn’t find an evil Tiki God or meet Vincent Price. I did get to see a taping of “Chico and The Man” at NBC. Unfortunately this was after Freddie Prinze (The father of Freddie Prinze Jr. if you are under 40) had died but Della Reese was still on the show. During the trip there were some “Dazed and Confused” type of experiences and then there was the incident of the pimp propositioning me at the airport.

So we had arrived at the Los Angeles Airport and were waiting outside of baggage claim for the family friend with whom we were staying to arrive and take us to their house. Being an impatient teenager I was walking up and down the sidewalk away from my family.

At one point a guy walked up to me and said “you visiting?” to which I of course replied “yes” and his response was “we ought to do some sightseeing while you are here, here’s my number” and handed me a folded piece of paper which I crammed in to the pocket of my then everpresent Blazer Styled Jeans Jacket without even looking at it and probably said something like “O.K.” and walked on.

At whatever point I opened the note it said – Marcus Ph.# 555-1212, XXOOXX

Now maybe I’m being dramatic and the guy was just being nice and wanted to take the boy with the feathered hair sightseeing. But I’m still suspicious since he had on a three piece black Velvet suit with a matching hat. We learned in Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway, that meant he was a pimp.